Falcon Focus

December 14, 2015

Falcon Focus

December 14, 2015

Optimism is a Competitive Advantage - Jon Gordon

Following is an excerpt of the latest Jon Gordon article - good stuff!!!

Research by Puri and Robinson at Duke University shows that optimistic people work harder, get paid more, are elected to office more often, and win at sports more regularly.

It turns out that optimism is more than just a positive state of mind. It’s also a competitive advantage in business, sports and politics. While the pessimists are complaining about the future, and the realists are talking about it, the optimists are working hard to create it.

The research shows that your attitude helps create a self fulfilling prophecy. Because optimists believe in a positive future they actually “delude” themselves into working more to make it possible. They believe and thus are willing to take actions to achieve.

In a competitive world filled with adversity, naysayers, and failure optimism is a game changer. You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask yourself what could you and your team achieve if you believed in an optimistic future and your ability to create it? Then give it a try.

Morning Meetings

Thanks for your commitment to the Morning Meeting. It is a crucial component to our PBIS initiative and our Campus Improvement Plan goal. With that in mind, I found this great article if you need a boost to your Morning Meetings for the upcoming new year. This incredible article provides some additional strategies to make them even more effective. Check it out!!! It's has some really great ideas.

Read Chapters 5 "Connection Before Correction" and Chapter 6 "Respectful Communication Skills" for the next book study in January!

Thank you!!!

Thanks to Lynda Knagg for a wonderful Choir Performance and coordination of Nutcracker Day! Her dedication to providing great experiences for our students is to be commended!

We also appreciate all those that volunteered at the FES Extravanganza and helped make Nutcracker Day a success!!! Your involvement and dedication to the Fabulous Florence Experience is very much appreciated!!!

To Do's and Calendar Updates

Grades should have been loaded by Friday afternoon, so that Progress Reports can be available in HAC on Tuesday morning. Thanks!

Dec. 18th. Writing Process work from each student due. This would include brainstorming, editing/revising, and final copies. For K-1 grades - include a picture of any anchor charts you use to help students brainstorm, edit, and revise (if students are not completing on their own, yet) There will be containers in the hallway where you can drop your class writing.

January Individual Data Talks - We will schedule a mid-year data talk with each teacher in January. You will meet with your assigned appraiser. See the following list for what to have prepared and what we will discuss (we will come to you):

SPED and 504 Accommodation Tracking for each appropriate student

RtI Intervention Sheets for each child

Universal Screening and Progress Monitoring Data Collection System

Guided Reading Record Keeping System - data collected during guided reading (Kelly Leach shared different systems a couple of weeks ago - if you need her help, please email her for ideas)

Examples of Reading, Writing, and Content Area Journals/Notebooks you have students utilizing.

Share any system you have in place where students are tracking their own data.

Brightbytes survey - We could win another laptop cart if we all participate!!!

Keller ISD is partnering with BrightBytes technology survey to give a voice to the different communities (parents, teachers and students) at each campus. The data collected will help shape educational technology implementation as well as a planning tool for future professional learning. The short anonymous survey will allow each campus to have access to their own data for planning purposes and identify tracks and trends in their data.

In order to comply with House Bill 5 measures we have to collect stakeholders perceptions relating to digital learning opportunities in Keller ISD.

The survey concludes on Friday, December 31, 2015.

The Teachers’ link will be accessed through K-Cloud under the Teacher tools menu, the students’ link will be accessed under the Classroom Applications menu.

Professional Development and Learning - Faculty Meetings, PLC's, and Kelly Leach Visits

Guided Reading Walkthroughs by Kelly Leach. Click here for the schedule for observation and coaching sessions.

Dec. 15th: PLC Meetings - We will analyze the math CFA's that are being given last week. Please bring your graded math assessments for each student. Third and fourth grade, please have your scan trans scanned, so we can pull reports. Here is the link to the Protocol.

January 4th: Afternoon Session - Plan with team implementation of Close Reading strategies.

January 5th: PLC meeting - Instructional Rounds Protocol - All teachers will be able to conduct Rounds and gather data.

January 7th: Kelly Leach finishing up first round of Guided Reading Observations and Coaching Sessions.

January 12th: Faculty Meeting

I will also be working over the next few weeks to send your calendar appointments for all faculty meetings and PLC meetings, so you will have it on your calendar. Your attendance at the PLC and faculty meetings is so important to your team and to us moving forward. I hope that sending you the appointments will help you plan your time off so that you don't miss anything. Thanks so much!!!

T-TESS Tid Bit

Differentiation

Differentiated instruction may include activities to address auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning style, or it may include providing students with choices in assignments that relate to the multiple intelligences. It may also mean that teachers provide students with extended time to complete assignments or abbreviated assignments based on student need. In order to provide a differentiated learning environment the teacher must have knowledge of the individual needs of all students.